Victimism
Victimism a.k.a. whining, is the tendency for individuals to posture as victims of powerful forces for political advantage or for news media to portray individuals as victims of powerful forces for political advantage. The Christian Right in the USA is populated by people who wallow in faux martyrdom. Amanda Marcotte describes the phenomenon as persecution fantasy. Some of these reactions are the result of failure to take responsibility for decisions that individuals have made. Examined in detail, many of the claims of being victimized made by conservatives reveal not a demand for equality of treatment but instead of protection for their already existing privilege. See wealthy whiners. Other claims of persecution turn out to be entirely bogus. Examples * On March 10, 2005, the Associated Press carried a news story, "Maryland Teen Protests Foreign Language Pledge," about a Millersville, MD ninth grader who protested his school's broadcasting the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish. Said ths youthful conservative victim, "This is America, and we got soldiers at war. When you're saying the Pledge in a different language which nobody understands, that's not OK." * On April 13, 2009, David K. Rehbein, national commander of the American Legion, a military veterans lobby shackled to the Republican Party, mailed a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano that complained that all military veterans had been maligned as rightwing extremists in her April 7 Report: "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence and Recruitment." That was before the June 2, 2009 assassination of Dr. George Tiller and the June 10, 2009 shootout at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum. While Napolitano sent a polite note to Rehbein making clear that her intent was not to offend veterans, Rehbein has yet to apologize to Napolitano for his hysterical criticism of what was a correct prediction. * On May 27, 2009, Fox News reported that Dalls, Texas disabled military veteran Frank Larison was the victim because he received a letter from the board of his The Woodlands II on The Creek Homeowners Association stating that members could not have have any form of advertisement anywhere on their car or property. According to the Fox News report, Larison violated the rules of the association by pasting pr posting various campaign, patriotic and Marine Corps stickers on his car and property. The apparent emotional appeal in the Fox News report was outrage that a disabled military veteran had been denied the opportunity to violate the rule. * On June 12, 2009, Fox News broadcast a news story/editorial, "Cleanup or Censorship?," critical of Oregon State University for an anti-litter rule confining distribution of free newspapers to one building on campus. The news report echoed complaints by the publishers of conservative The Liberty newspaper that the school was engaging in censorship aimed at conservative ideas. In response Oregon State University officals stated The Daily Barometer is the only university-recognized student publication, and thus allowed distribution all over campus, while The Liberty is not a recognized student publication, it has the same distribution right as other papers like The Eugene Weekly and The Corvallis Gazette-Times. So it was not singled out. * On July 3, 2009, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin explains that she is resigning her position, in part, because her other children have experienced the mockery of his youngest son: Trig. In the peculiar quitting ceremony she blamed the media for "making things up" and attacked Hollywood for being hostile to gun rights. * Late July, 2009: Loren Spivak launched a public temper tantrum because Concord Mills Mall in North Carolina refused to renew the lease on his "Free Market Warrior" kiosk that sells conservative knick-knacks. Among the bumberstickers he offered for sale was the offensively racist message "About that Civil War thing...N.C. never actually surrendered." A handful of his white conservative supporters screamed "cenorship" in a protest outside the Mall. What Spival fails to comprehend is that the free market includes the freedom to contract. If the Mall management does not want to contract with Spivak for space then it should not have to contract with Spivak. * September 2009: Claiming that conservative undergraduates are victims of liberal professors, University of Tennessee College Republicans President Matt Rubin announced a blacklist of professors. That teach them to give little Matt only a B. * October 1, 2009: Evangelical football fans at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia complain bitter when they are denied permission to express their religious beliefs at High Schhol football games played on public property, an obvious violation of the First Amendment's probihition against establishment of religion by the state. Expressing his preferne for the tyranny of local theocratic majorities, youth pastor Jeremy Jones asserted that, "Our Constitution does guarantee that our federal government will not establish a religion. It will also make sure that we are allowed to exercise it without interference from the government. That is what we need to fight for, folks." source That Christians are not supposed to fight seems to have escaped the pious team sports fan/clergyman. So too the evil of forcing every taxpayer to pay for his religious practice when he uses public property for religious services/demonstrations. * October 14, 2009: Patriotic intimidation is effective. When some residents of Oak Park Apartments in Albany Oregon were told that they were in violation of an apartment mangement rule that probits symbolic displays by flying the American Flag, they immediately assumed the posture of the populist victimized by political correctness. They protested using language suggesting that rule enforcement was directed against their patriotism rather than for the broader purposes deemed appropriate by the apartment management: protecting all residents from any form of hate. Oak Park management added that if they allowed one form of symbolism, they have to allow all forms of symbolism. Apparently that sort of consistency or even handedness is difficult for the wannebe victim to grasp. Oak park management caved to the tactic and announced that any national flag may be flown. Now the residents will a better idea of why they fear and hate one another. According to Barb Holcumb of Oak Park management: "What we were trying to do was to keep the peace...If the peace needs to be kept, it belongs to the police department." The same issue appeared in Henrico County in early December 2009 involving a 90 year old veteran who insisted on violating the rules of his homeowners association. After 90 years you would think that Col. Barfoot would have learned that a contract is a contract. Don't sign it if you don't mean it. But maybe instead he learned that cheap patriotic posturing could trump other people's property rights. * August 27, 2010: William A. Donoahue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, leads small protest complaining that the owners of the Empire State Building declined to change the lighting of the top floors to the blue and white colors of Mother Theresa's Missionaries of Charity on th anniversary of her birthday, "was to insult Catholics." The owners of the building explained that they did not respond to requests for non-secular events. Source: Clyde Haberman. "In the Latest Religious Battle, a Call to Arms for Mother Theresa." The New York Times. August 27, 2010. A 16. Property rights are property rights. Perhaps Mr. Donahue should consider buying the building to change that exterior lighting policy. * May 11, 2011: When a teacher at Butterfield Elemtary school in the Town of Orange, Massaschusetts refused to hang a little Frankie (Franklin) Gerard's picture of an American flag in a classroom for fear of offending another student, his father, John Gerard, was outraged. WWPL.com 22News decided to cover the story as a "controversy." According to the outraged: "We’re allowing him to display his civil rights and be proud of who he is, but we’re denying Franklin those same rights." Controversy Over Child's Flag Drawing. Matt Caron. May 11, 2011. * April 17, 2013: Faced with a coutner-demonstration by pro-choice students and faculty, University of Buffalo Students For Life of America President Kristan Hawkins complained pro-life students are singled out for attacks on campus: “As we’ve seen again and again, a pro-abortion supporter couldn’t handle the ugly truth of abortion and lashed out,” Hawkins told Fox News. “She had to resort to yelling and using profane language with police officers...We stand with UB Students for Life for courageously fighting to bring the truth of abortion to a liberal campus, despite attempts to shout them down, cover the display, and personally attack group leaders like President Christian Andzel.” She then went on to make the silly claim that her entire generation of students at the institution believed as she did: “UB SFL is the pro-life generation and they are already showing they know how to behave like better adults than the ones opposing them.” College Professor Arrested for Profane Rant at Pro-Life Students Steven Ertelt. LifeNews.com. April 17, 2013. * June 5, 2013: Liberty High School Valedictorian Roy Costner IV ambushes those attending his public school graduation by reading the Lord's Prayer in the place of his speech. Posturing as the victim of secularism, little mister Costner imposed his religion on everyone else at his graduation ceremony and also on every taxpayer who had to pay for the event. Pity no one taught him to read the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Guess the lesson is 'never waste an opporunity no mater how unfair to wage your Conseravative Culture War'. * Former police officer John Pike, who pepper-sprayed students during a 2011 Occupy Demonstration at the UC Davis requested worker’s compensation with the claim that he suffered psychiatric injury as a consequence. * June 26, 2014: CBS carries a story about a Jacksonville, FL veteran who repeatedly provokes his homeowner association with patriotic flag displays violating association rules. * June 27, 2014: Grand Dragon of the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire William Walters complains that he was the victim of religious discrimination for being removed from the Tacony Town Watch in Philadelphia because of his Christian belief in white superiority. * April 2, 2016: the New York Post carries a news story of Trump supporters on the NYU campus who claim to be victimized because fellow students disagree with them openly. This is hardly surprising in an age of hypersensitivity that mandates trigger warnings from professors lest the material presented in class is too disturbing. The irony is that Trump has campaigned against political correctness. Weenies. * August 29, 2016: the amusingly named American Thinker conservative blog blames President Obama for PTSD and the failures of an overburdened, underfunded Veterans Administration. With only months to go in the last term of the Obama administration, conservatives attempt to suck a little more out of Obama Derangement Syndrome. * November 28, 2016: Shopper identified as Jennifer Boyle claims anti-white bias because she was asked to pay $1 for a bag at a Chicago Michaels arts and crafts store. * January 18, 2019: Native American gadfly activist, a.k.a. "Omaha Elder", Nathan Phillips successfully positioned himself as a victim in an encounter with a crowd of Pro-Life High School students wearing MAGA caps verbally attacked by a group of "Black Hebrew Isrealites." Progressives rushed to judgment and joined an online mob denouncing the kids in vitriolic terms. * January 21, 2019: 85 year old Florida trailer park resident and devout Roman Catholic Millie Francis, declares that "They'll have to kill me to remove a large painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe on a wooden board, which violates trailer park rules. Links * Political Lexicon * Rape Crisis Feminist * Victim Complex * Welfare rancher * Crackpot * Bias External * The right’s absurd Facebook freakout: How the uproar over “Trending Topics” exposes its gargantuan victim complex Gary Legum. Salon. May 11, 2016. * Erick Erickson’s Persecution Narrative: How Right-Wing Christian Pundits Avoid Accountability Elzabeth Stoker. Salon. December 23, 2013. * Franklin Graham claims Christians are persecuted by the entertainment industry and "certain segments" of the nerws media. * Eighth Grader Violence Message Tee-Shirt.